Do you know what Epic Reads is? No? Well you should. You should also know that Epic Reads exists because of the benevolence of King Snarkles, the reading hedgehog.
…uh…if this isn’t making any sense to you then I don’t how to explain. Just know that reading is great and hedgehogs are cute and when you combine the two you can get a little silly.
So, I (and some friends) thought that Snarkles was so cute we simply NEEDED to have our own look-a-likes. And this one is mine. I named her Princess Snapples. And as I picked her up in Seattle on Friday, I thought I would show you this years ALA Midwinter through her experiences.
First, Princess Snapples had to wait in line with everyone else. But she didn’t mind. It was a fun time to meet new people and get excited about books! And to stretch her legs after being in a box for so long.
After doors opened Snapples was carried around in my bag with nose poking out so she could see all the books and all the people that were excited about books and reading. She was very happy to see all these people. At the Penguin booth, Snapples was excited to see The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey and Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
Then she demanded to be taken to the Harper Collins booth, as she feels a certain loyalty to them. And they make pretty, pretty covers. All of the display books looked pretty and she wanted to read them all!
At Macmillan, everyone was excited about Scarlet but Snapples wanted Siege and Storm more than anything.
When we went to go visit the Little Brown booth, a choir was blocking us. I kid you not.
The next morning Snapples was tired and demanded some Starbucks while waiting in line. But quickly abandoned her drink when the doors opened and she got to spend some time with a book she wanted almost more than anything else.
After that, Snapples needed a snack (an illegally imported from Canada snack) and then just couldn’t choose what to read first.
The next morning I just didn’t want to get up. Carrying Snapples, as well as books for Snapples, around is hard work. But she wouldn’t leave me alone until I got out of bed. That day we met Amy Tintera, Emma Trevayne and Janet Gurtler. And we looked at all the pretties in the ALA store. Had to stop ourselves from buying packs of Printz stickers and sticking them on the books we think deserve them.
I remembered to give our coupon to Simon and Schuster so Snapples got herself a copy of Sever. And Random House had a copy of the Mirror Shard for her!
After making one more stop, the next morning, with all the books, we headed home and Snapples was so happy to see the swag we got. We both love pins and there’s an Epic Reads notebook! Yay! And I think we will be arguing for awhile about which book to read next. Taken or Invisibility? Unbreakable or the Summer Prince? Spellcaster or the Nightmare Affair? It’s just so hard!